The global transaction volume of in-store and ecommerce digital wallet payments will exceed US$10tn by 2025, according to a forecast commissioned by Discover Global Network... More
P2P
East Caribbean Central Bank launches digital currency
Residents of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis can now pay for goods and services and make peer-to-peer money transfers from their smartphones using the East Caribbean Central Bank’s DCash central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
GSMA reports ‘dramatic acceleration’ in mobile money transactions
The number of registered mobile money accounts globally grew by 13% in 2020 to reach a total of more than 1.2bn, according to research by the GSMA... More
Russian carriers seek digital ruble mobile wallet role
Russian mobile network operators Beeline and MegaFon are looking to develop digital wallets for smartphones and other mobile devices that will support the central bank digital currency (CBDC) which is being developed by The Central Bank of Russia (CBR)... More
PBOC pilots contactless cards and wearables that let consumers make payments with China’s digital currency
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has expanded its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot to include a contactless ‘hard wallet’ and NFC wearables that enable consumers to make in-store and transit fare payments with their digital yuan... More
Visa proposes CBDC protocol that lets consumers exchange digital cash via Bluetooth or NFC
Visa has published a research paper exploring an offline payment system (OPS) protocol for central bank digital currencies (CBDC) that would enable users to make digital payments to other users even when both sender and recipient are temporarily offline or unable to connect to a bank, payment network or other intermediary... More
US Bank lets customers send a greeting card with their P2P payment
Customers of US Bank can now add a personalised digital greetings card when they use the bank’s mobile app to make a Zelle P2P transfer to anyone with a US bank account... More
PBOC to trial online and offline payment functions in second digital yuan red envelope giveaway
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is to enable participants in the next phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot to test for the first time the use of digital yuan for making both online purchases and touch-based in-store offline payments... More
Octopus adds travel info and P2P NFC transfers to transit wallet
Octopus transit card holders in Hong Kong can now use their Octopus App to view travel information and transport services “at a glance” and transfer funds from one card to another via NFC... More
Contactless payment and instant credit ecosystem rolls out in UAE
Residents of the United Arab Emirates can now make in-app and in-store NFC and QR code-enabled contactless payments, international remittances, utility bill payments and P2P financial transfers and apply for instant credit using a single mobile payments app... More
Payconiq rolls out cross-border QR mobile payments service in Europe
Users of Payconiq-supported mobile payment apps in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg can now make QR-enabled mobile payments and P2P transfers across all three Benelux countries... More
Central Bank of Iceland rolls out instant payments platform
The Central Bank of Iceland (CBI) has implemented a new real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) and instant payment platform that will allow it to manage up to 5m interbank, P2P, P2B and B2B payments a day... More
Huawei integrates digital yuan hardware wallets into Mate 40 NFC smartphone
Owners of Huawei’s Mate 40 in China will be able to make transactions in digital yuan from a central bank digital currency (CBDC) hardware wallet built into the soon-to-be-released smartphone... More
Venmo combines contactless and QR payments on a single credit card
Users of PayPal-owned P2P payments app Venmo can now apply for a credit card that includes both a contactless payments chip and a printed QR code that they can use to receive P2P payments and share bills with friends... More
Visa introduces cloud tokens that work across multiple devices
Visa has introduced a new cloud-based token framework that makes it possible for tokens to be enabled “across all of a consumer’s devices” and “are directly integrated with the consumer’s bank”... More
Facebook picks Brazil for first commercial rollout of WhatsApp payments
WhatsApp users in Brazil can now make payments to local merchants and send money to friends and contacts “without leaving their chat”... More
NFC Forum formally adopts TNEP standard for bidirectional NFC data exchange
The NFC Forum’s Tag NFC Data Exchange Format Exchange Protocol (TNEP) Specification and an updated version of the Connection Handover Technical Specification (CH 1.5) have been formally approved and adopted, the standards organisation has announced... More
Chevron lets drivers pay with Venmo at the pump
Chevron has added support for PayPal’s Venmo P2P payments service to its Chevron and Texaco mobile apps, making it possible for drivers to share or split their fuel purchases with passengers... More
ST gains NFC Forum certification for high performance NFC and contactless payments reader
PARTNER NEWS: STMicroelectronics has received NFC Forum certification for the ST25R3916, a high performance NFC universal device and EMVCo reader that is fully compliant with ISO 14443A/B, ISO 15693, ISO 18092, Felica and NFC Forum standards... More
Venmo adds branded animated emojis to payment messages
US P2P payments app Venmo is adding support for a suite of custom-designed animated emojis that can be used “when paying, splitting and sharing payments” and include branded options from both Subway and Ikea... More